An inkjet printing system may include a printhead and an ink supply which supplies liquid ink to the printhead. The printhead ejects ink drops through a plurality of orifices or nozzles and toward a print media, such as a sheet of paper, so as to print onto the print media. Typically, the nozzles are arranged in one or more arrays such that properly sequenced ejection of ink from the nozzles causes characters or other images to be printed upon the print media as the printhead and the print media are moved relative to each other.
Nozzles of the printhead are often arranged in one or more columns with nozzles within a respective column having an established nozzle-to-nozzle spacing. This nozzle-to-nozzle spacing affects the number of dots-per-inch (dpi) or resolution that the printhead can print. Thus, reducing the spacing between nozzles can result in increased resolution of the printhead. Physical limitations, however, may limit the spacing between nozzles within a respective column.
In addition, during printing, nozzles of the printhead may malfunction. For example, nozzles may become obstructed or clog or become inoperative for some other reason. Furthermore, during printing, printing speed of the printhead is limited by how many drops can be ejected through the nozzles along a certain path.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.